Our First Meishan Litter: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

Our first Meishan litter! We have been looking forward to this moment for over a year- ever since we first thought about getting these weird and wonderful pigs. Except... Nandi, the first Meishan gilt we bought, (and the first and only Meishan gilt we have bred so far) is still pregnant and nothing about this delivery has been what we planned.

Back in January, we brought a new Meishan gilt to the homestead. Her name is Zelde (pronounced the same as Zelda), and she is from Odd Bird Farm in Missouri. She was born on October 1, making her just days younger than Yolanda, our other young Meishan gilt from Elemental Acres. Unbeknownst to both us and her breeder, Jonathan Kemmerer, when Zelde came to us in January, she had already been pregnant for a month. In hindsight, there were signs even then that she was pregnant, and I even thought it kind of looked like she was, but since A) it's our first year having pregnant pigs, B) we didn't know she was around boars for so long, C) she was so tiny (much smaller than Yolanda, who is only days older), and D) there's a wide variety of shapes and sizes within Meishans depending on the genetic lines, we figured it must just be natural variation and put it out of our minds. As time passed, she started catching up to Yolanda in size, but also became more and more round. Eventually, about a month ago, we finally had the realization that she was indeed pregnant, and even started feeling the babies move!

So how did this very early pregnancy happen?

🐷

Meishans are very precocious - boars can breed from around 6 weeks, and gilts can conceive as soon as they go into heat for the first time, between 9 and 12 weeks. Because of this, it's a good idea to wean and separate at least the boars from the litter at around 6 weeks. Some breeders wean even earlier at 5 weeks, and while this may seem incredibly early when you think about other species or even other breeds of pig, Meishans are quick to mature in other areas as well and are usually eating and benefiting from feed from very early on, as they have more advanced and mature digestive systems than other breeds at the same age. This makes weaning early much simpler and easier on the piglets, who can also be supplemented with goat milk or formula if necessary.

At first both we and Jonathan suspected that she may have been bred by a litter mate, because this litter was not separated as early as usual. The weather was particularly cold when they were reaching the age they normally wean and the mother was feeding them with ease and keeping her condition, so they were left to receive the benefits of the extra body heat and nursing until 10 weeks (which could have been a bit too long if she went into heat at 9 weeks).

After doing some calculations though, we found that she actually must have gotten pregnant between 12 and 13 weeks, which would thankfully exclude a litter mate fathering the litter - phew! But this leaves us with another mystery - if it wasn't a litter mate, who is the daddy, and how? It turns out that the pen she was in at the time shared a fence line with a pen of boars. Yes, they can breed through the fence, though it isn't very common and she was the only one of her litter who was bred. We will never know which boar it was, but one of them got lucky.

🐷

Unfortunately, it wasn't so lucky for Zelde, as pregnancy and delivery so young is very hard on a gilt's body. The energy and nutrition that should be going into her growth are now split between her and her piglets. An underage gilt is more likely to have severe complications during birth, which can result in death for both her and her piglets. In fact, our very first pig was given to us to raise as a one day old orphan because his mother and any litter mates died during birth because she was accidentally bred too young. Even if the gilt (now termed a sow after giving birth) comes through the delivery, her long term growth and fertility can be affected, resulting in a smaller adult size and smaller litters throughout her lifetime. Suffice it to say, there's a lot to be concerned about in this situation.

Zelde started nesting around midday on Sunday, and we knew her babies should be coming within 12 to 24 hours from the time she started nesting. We monitored her throughout the day and night, checking in every hour or two and watching for a while to see if there were signs of contractions or pushing, and to make sure Zelde wasn't in distress. At the 4 AM check, she was still cozy in her nest, breathing heavily but not showing visible contractions, shivering, or straining- the same as the rest of the night. The next time we went out was just after 6 AM, and she was pushing!

Within half an hour, with very minimal assistance, she delivered her first piglet. Sadly, though he was a good size and appeared healthy, he was stillborn. I waited with Zelde to assist any further piglets, but it seemed labor had stalled. She was still visibly uncomfortable, but was no longer contracting or pushing. A couple hours passed, and I became increasingly concerned, as there should typically be less than an hour between piglets, and I was fairly certain I could feel another piglet while palpating her abdomen.

I called the closest farm vet (45 miles away), but didn't get an answer as he was likely busy with another patient. I called the vet we use in the city (85 miles away) because I knew they did farm visits as well, but the receptionist said there wouldn't be anything they could do for her at our place and insisted we bring her in. Now, we had already been through this with goats this year and brought our laboring goat into town in the back of our minivan so that the vet could pull a stuck kid, but for the uninitiated, there is a rather large difference between moving a goat and moving a pig. We had to drag, push, and lift Stella (our goat) because she was not being cooperative (understandably), but trying to do any of that with a pig is an entirely different ball game, and it is highly likely that you will sustain injuries in the process. I didn't see any way we could get her loaded into a vehicle. We did attempt to get her into a crate, but failed. Under normal circumstances, we could load her without a problem, just luring her with food, but during labor she had no interest in food and made it clear that she had absolutely no intention of leaving her shelter.

In the midst of all of that I was also messaging our Meishan mentor, and breeder of Nandi and Musa, Brooke Fox of Pig Wing Farms. She was calm, knowledgeable, and sympathetic as she talked us through the situation, and she put her networking skills to work to see if she could find a local breeder or farmer who would be able to help us in person and soon put us in contact with L & B Farm who very generously offered their expertise and resources to get Zelde's labor back on track. A couple hours later (and a total of 7 hours after her first), Zelde's second and final piglet was born, and this little guy, despite (or perhaps because of) being much smaller than his brother, was born alive!

The little guy is active and nursing well, and Zelde seems to be feeling much better too (which was our greatest concern in all of this). I had actually been praying that foremost, Zelde would come through the delivery healthy, and secondly, that there would be at least one living piglet, and if possible, that it would be a boy. Praise God for answered prayer! We are incredibly thankful for a positive outcome, and for the help of fellow farmers. It is such a blessing to be part of a community that helps each other, and we look forward to mentoring other new Meishan owners and welcoming them into this community as well!